Theft or unauthorized removal of wheels from a vehicle has become an increasingly common occurrence, especially in light of new wheel designs utilizing high-end, expensive materials. Existing solutions for preventing theft of vehicle wheels have several drawbacks. For example, one existing solution places specialized locking or anti-theft lug nuts on each wheel and requires a proper socket key to remove the lug nut. However, wheel thieves have discovered ways to circumvent or defeat such mechanical protections. Another existing anti-theft system places a tire pressure monitoring (TPM) sensor in each vehicle wheel and detects theft of a wheel when the sensor fails to communicate tire pressure information to the vehicle. In response to detecting theft, the vehicle telematics unit sends a notification regarding the theft to a call center, public authority, or vehicle owner. However, such solutions are not capable of tracking the stolen wheel once it is removed from the vehicle.
While there are other existing anti-theft systems that can track the location of a stolen wheel, for example, using GPS data transmitted by a tracking device installed inside the wheel, these systems further increase the manufacturing cost and complexity of each wheel and consume large amounts of power. For example, one such system requires installation and calibration of separate, dedicated anti-theft hardware in each wheel, including a proximity sensor for detecting the unauthorized removal of the wheel, a GPS receiver for tracking a geographical location of the wheel, and additional wireless communication circuitry for transmitting the wheel's location back to the vehicle owner or other entity.
Accordingly, there is still a need in the art for an improved vehicle wheel anti-theft system that is capable of effectively tracking a wheel removed from a vehicle but also, minimizes the cost, complexity, and power consumption of the vehicle wheels.